The View from Gryffindor Tower
by 0viridia0
Summary: Jennifer Talon has spent eleven years watching her squib sister living a normal life, going to school and making friends, and now its her turn. Her and her cousin, Elizabeth, head off to Hogwarts together, with hopes of making new friends and learning new spells.
1. Prologue

The View from Gryffindor Tower

Prologue

There was a high fence around the Talons home.

They weren't especially sociable people, they kept to themselves for the most part, and the high fence just confirmed how much they didn't want any trouble.

The two of them arrived in the village one day, a young looking man with chestnut brown hair and a woman about the same age with hair the colour of sunlight, and bought the old manor that had supposedly once belong to royalty. A few days later the fence appeared. No one had seen it be put up, but no one had really been watching either.

Whenever someone passed by their fence they would always strain their necks trying to catch a glimpse of the odd pair. The locals were curious people, and curious people love odd things.

Although they tried to learn more about the Talons, they didn't have much success. It wasn't until years later, when two small girls, one with chestnut brown hair and the other with hair the colour of sunlight, started visiting the playground that the Talons finally started becoming a bit less distant.

At first they would only play by themselves, making fairy houses from sticks and stones or picking flowers to bring home, but eventually they began conversing with the other children. It turned out they were twins, not the identical kind, the kind that look similar but not quite the same.

What really confused the locals though, more than anything else, was that when the time came for the twins to start school only one of them went, the one with the chestnut brown hair, Julia.

"Jennifer?" she said when she was asked "Mum and Dad said that she would go to a different school when she's older so she's got to study at home!".

As time passed the local children saw less and less of Jennifer.

They would occasionally see her outside the gate to Talon manor, picking flowers from the bushes and trees that lined the road, but she would never stray much farther than that and she rarely talked to anyone but her sister.

It was around the time of the twins tenth birthday that a small blue car would occasionally be seen passing through the same gate.

It was usually a black haired man that drove the car, although sometimes it was a woman with blonde hair, and there was always a girl in the passenger seat, probably the same age as the twins, with black hair always tied back.

The September after the twins turned eleven Jennifer completely disappeared. It seemed she had gone to the school Julia had talked about when she was younger. No one asked Julia why she hadn't gone, in case it was a sore subject, which it seemed to be.

The Talon parents, whose names turned out to be Arthur and Charlotte, became much friendlier after that. They started attending local events and talking more with the locals. Although they changed very much very quickly, they still seemed odd. They didn't know much about politics and they didn't seem to have a clue what a television was. It seemed they lived a very old-fashioned kind of life, although no one actually ever went past the gates to the manor to see what it was really like.

There was a high fence around the Talons home. No one could ever strain their necks enough to see over and no one ever became close enough to the family to be invited inside.

No one knew what happened past the fence. No one knew where the other twin had gone, the one with the hair the colour of sunlight. No one knew much about the Talons.

And by no one of course I only mean the local people of the village, for there were many people who knew all those things.

Authors Note:

This is actually a re-write of a story I posted a couple months ago. I really didn't like how I had written it so I just started again. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Jennifer Talon

Jennifer looked back at the stone barrier she had just walked through. "I hope I'll be able to learn charms like that" she smiled happily at the thought of being able to use proper spells.

Her cousin grabbed her arm and pulled her into a cloud of very loud people, the Hogwarts students and their families. "Those are just boring spells, Jenny. I want to learn how to turn a rock into and elephant and how to make things explode, those spells are the fun ones!" the black haired girl said excitedly, pulling Jennifer further into the crowd.

"I'm not sure we'll be learning things like that in first year Liz... It all sounds a bit complicated. Id rather start with something simpler." Jennifer started, her voice only just loud enough to hear over everyone else "I'm not sure if I'm any good at magic, after all, I wouldn't want to embarrass myself by messing up".

Unlike her cousin, Elizabeth Deegan wasn't worried in the slightest about embarrassing herself. As a matter of fact, she was quite sure that she would be the best student in her year. Well, maybe not the very best, as there were quite a lot of other first years, but a very good student anyways.

Although they were extremely different, the fair haired Jennifer with her gentle heart and tendency to overthink things and the dark haired Elizabeth with her daring personality and tomboyish antics, they got along quite well, they balanced each other out.

Liz pulled Jennifer along until they found a spot that wasn't as crowded.

"Oh look, Liz , you can see the train! Isn't it pretty!" Jennifer looked up at the shining scarlet train in front of them. "Wow!" Liz gasped, turning to see what Jennifer was looking at. "Amazing!" They said in unison.

"Elizabeth Deegan!" called an angry voice from behind them. They both turned to see a woman with short blonde hair and a very angry expression to match the tone of her voice standing looking down at them.

"Sorry, Mum!" Liz began, smiling innocently up at her mother "I saw the train and I pulled Jenny along. It was just so wonderful I had to get a better look! I'm really sorry, honest!".

Her mother sighed and handed us both our luggage. "You best get on then. I can't have you two missing the train after all that money I spent on books and owls and robes and such!" she smiled, hugging us both and then pushing us both towards the first-year carriage. " Have a good time! And don't forget to write home! You too, Jennifer, I wouldn't want your mother worrying!" She called after us.

"Bye Aunt Clara! I'll make sure to write as soon as I have time! I'll make sure Liz does too!" Jenny called back. She smiled and waved. "Try to stay out of trouble!" she shouted as we climbed onto the carriage, hauling our bags and owl cages behind us. Liz closed the door without so much as waving.

"Didn't you want to say goodbye?" Jennifer asked as Liz pushed past some other first years and continued down the corridor. She turned her head and looked into each compartment as she passed, not answering the question.

"There he is!" she exclaimed when they arrived at a compartment near the back of the carriage. "Who?" Jennifer inquired, trying to see past Liz. "Don't get too excited, it's only James. Looks like he's made a friend though" Liz replied as she pulled the compartment door open.

Jennifer followed her cousin into the carriage and saw two boys, one with incredibly messy black hair and hazel eyes and another with tidier black hair and much duller grey eyes, looking up at her and Liz.

"Umm... Hello" she managed, but she could see Liz's sideways glares of disapproval. She wasn't used to having to talk to people, so it wasn't really her fault.

Liz sat down next to the window across from James, the one with hazel eyes, and Jen sat down next to her.

James glared at her. "Oh, did you want us to sit in a different compartment?" Liz said, after a few seconds of silence "Well, you should have said earlier, there's probably no room now! It's not so bad, is it, Jamie? Now, stop being so rude and introduce us to your friend here!".

James sighed. "This is my cousin Elizabeth-" he started, gesturing to Liz, but was interrupted. "Liz, I'd prefer Liz if you don't mind too much". "Right, that's Liz anyway. The much more pleasant one is Liz's cousin Jennifer- I suppose you'll be told to call her Jen or Jenny, is that right?" he looked at Jennifer. "Oh" she said, realising she was supposed to say something "Right, well, whatever's most convenient".

"Yeah, like I said, this one's much nicer" James said, almost laughing. Liz kicked him in response.

"So, if you're done with our introductions, why don't you tell us who your little friend is, hm?" she snapped.

"I was getting to that" James sneered "This is Sirius".

The other boy had been sitting silently since the two girls had entered the compartment.


End file.
